Lover of a Snake
by TheOneWhoRulesThemAll
Summary: "For that was the time that I had been afflicted with such an overwhelming feeling of fear that every other possible emotion had been swept aside by an avalanche of terror. All because of him. That harbinger of chaos and utter despair that is unmatched by any other being that I have had the misfortune to come across. Who is now out for my blood. Not to be dramatic." Orochimaru/OC


An early Merry Christmas to all!

Well, this wasn't supposed to be posted until I'd finished it, and considering I have only this chapter and another two and a bit pages complete, I would hardly call it finished. But I am in a Christmas-sy mood and thus feel like Orochimaru needs some love. He is, after all, my favourite character in world of Naruto and as he only has 2.7K under his name, his fandom needs to be extended.

So this is where Lover of a Snake comes in and as you can tell by the title, it is an OrochimaruXOC (okay, maybe the OC part is not in the title but it is obviously going to be a romance with the only Snake able to be loved in Naruto). Be warned, my style of writing is that I will put my characters through any amount of torment and as long as they don't die, it's fine. Then again, as an author I can always bring them back to life. (Like Kishimoto, who did it again . . . and again . . . and, for variety, again.)

This story will be long, and if anyone reviews and tells me to keep going (because be assured that I will not unless I am told to), it will have very sporadic updates. It has no swearing, no intercourse, probably gore/horror, will constantly be edited and will be as realistically _human _as I can make it.

I have messed with one part of canon already (apart from, you know, adding an OC who falls in love with Orochimaru) with the Four Violet Flames Formation. Because I didn't realise the true properties of the barrier until after I'd already written the scene involving it, I couldn't be bothered changing it. After all, this is _fanfiction _and thus I can mess with canon a bit. Thus, the barrier became a weaker version of the Four Red Yang Formation used by the Kage during the battle against the Ten Tails, but with a roof.

I think this is a long enough author's note for now but I have to admit that I haven't kept up with the last thirty chapters of the manga, which I use as my baseline (not the anime). However, Wikia is a excellent source of information, so don't worry, I will try to keep it all correct. Please tell me if you find something wrong though, and I will change it to be in line with the manga.

And without further ado, and a request to point out any mistakes, enjoy Lover of a Snake, Chapter One.

* * *

_May 6__th__, thirteen years post Kyuubi Attack_

_One day, only a few months ago, my teacher told me to 'look underneath the underneath'. And now I shall apply that very same order to myself, but in a way that is most likely different to what my teacher intended. Well, then again, no one ever knows what he is thinking so for all I know he could have been imaging me doing just as I am about to do. But unpicking the mind of my enigmatic teacher is not what I am trying to do; instead, I going to look inside myself to find a simple moment in time. So, here goes:_

_To use an easy topic – one that may or may not be of any help or relevance to what I am writing here, whether what I am writing here is actually of relevance to anything except me trying to avoid the inevitable – if I was to pick one time in my life when I had been completely overwhelmed with a single emotion, it would not be today. No, today I cannot even pick one feeling from the next, and so it is obviously not a time that holds relevance to my topic of self-reflection. A possible candidate may be the day that I learnt about Naruto's 'furball', as he liked to call it. The shock I had felt must have been palpable in the Sandaime's office when he had confirmed my half-hearted suspicions. But then again, there had been some triumph and relief at the edge of my astonishment as well, considering something I had been simultaneously worrying about and trying to figure out for weeks had been deemed as true as I had surmised. So that date is out of the running. What else is there?_

_Well, there was the instance when the Sandaime had given me and Naruto our own apartment. The gratefulness that had welled up inside me was unparalleled, and still is. But that was not a time that adheres to my stipulations under the category of 'only one emotion' either, as there had been a twinge of trepidation at being alone with in an apartment at the tender age five._

_So I suppose that gives me one last option to try; exactly one month ago, during the second portion of the Chunin Exams. Yes, that time will do._

_For that was the time that I had been afflicted with such an overwhelming feeling of fear that every other possible emotion had been swept aside by an avalanche of terror. All because of him. That harbinger of chaos and utter despair that is unmatched by any other being that I have had the misfortune to come across. No one could possibly compare to the ability he possesses to destroy someone's completely normal life in an instant. Whether he intends to or not, his very presence is an omen of the bad things to come in the immediate future for those not brainwashed to follow his sick commands. He most likely forces them to obey him with the same smothering fear he used on me that caused me to hallucinate my death._

_That twisted, cruel, snake of a man._

_Who, not to be any more dramatic than I already have been, is now out for my blood._

_But I will get to that in a minute, because right now I have to run, and hopefully keep my body intact and not on his lab table. No doubt he will want to have Kabuto dissect me if I am captured; preferably while I am alive and can scream at every spear of pain his despicable scalpels can create._

_But one moment please. I will only be a little while; when I had started writing this I had just come from _his _place and hadn't factored in the battle raging outside. How silly of me._

* * *

Sei snapped the journal shut and stuck the pen she had been writing with through her ponytail. Pulling up her left sleeve slightly, she activated the storage seal painted on the inside of her left wrist and slipped the book in. She rubbed a thumb over the small seal and frowned when it smudged. That was problematic.

A loud crash interrupted her thoughts and she muttered an oath under her breath, rising silently to her feet and gliding to the large balcony that's view was second only to the Hokage Tower. She bit back another oath when she saw what had caused the crash. The neighbouring building had been destroyed by a particularly powerful fire technique, and the water tower on its roof had exploded when the heat of the flames had brought the water inside it to its boiling point. If she didn't get out now she was going to be trapped by her own building burning down.

Sealing the bag she had packed into a storage scroll, she leapt from the building just as the flame breathing Sound ninja on the street sent jet of fire directly into her apartment. The seven years of her life went up in flames in an instant. Sei tried to ignore the twinge that struck her heart at the sight of her beloved home being destroyed like any other building in the area. Naruto wouldn't be happy.

She landed on the roof of the apartment block across the road in a crouch but was immediately forced to start sprinting when a shower of kunai and shuriken came raining down on her head. All thoughts of being able to pause on the way to her destination were completely demolished as she dodged jutsus and jumped over fighting ninjas. At one point she had to circumvent an entire block of burning wood. The sound and smell of the dying people inside, screaming in pain as their bodies were quickly scorched into charred flesh that left a vomit inducing stench in the air made her pick up her pace and swallow the little food she had in her stomach.

At another moment her hurried run became a mad dash when several Sand ninja raced after her, attempting to trip her up with their wind techniques that she barely avoided. They were intercepted by a couple of Leaf ninja who she thanked in a rush. The rest of the journey was a blur of straining limbs and ducking projectiles. The battle was hard and it wasn't just Sound and Sand ninjas who were falling.

A fleeting grin ran over Sei's face when she came within jumping distance of the large stadium where the Third Exam was meant to be taking place. She vaulted over a chunk of stone and readied for the leap that would take her half way up the side of the huge building. But just as she sprang from the ground she heard the sound of sizzling beneath her and looked down in horror to see a flaming explosive note directly under her.

'_Oh, great,'_ she had the time to think before a burning ball of flames enveloped her. Suddenly two pairs of hands were wrapped around both her forearms and flinging her into open space. She twisted in the air just in time to see a black clad figure and a girl holding a hammer use each other as a spring board and propel themselves away from the fire and onto nearby buildings. Sei sketched a salute as best she could to them, which they returned, before twisting back around and bracing for impact with the wooden roof a long way below her.

But, to her shock, something flickered and suddenly she was only metres away from something purple, transparent, and decidedly solid. The wind from her momentum ripped her scream away from her ears before she could hear it as she flung her arms up to protect her face.

She landed with a thump and something in her left hand cracked, sending a spike of pain through the appendage. She lay still for several moments, simply revelling in the fact that, though her body ached everywhere and her ring finger was out of commission, she wasn't badly injured. After a few seconds, she stood up in one fluid movement and tried to ascertain what had happened.

A glance down revealed that what she was standing on was some kind hollow cube, held in place by four ninja at the outside corners of the cube that touched the stadium roof. It must have been a jutsu because the purple walls and roof were pulsating in waves, making it difficult to see inside. And inside the cube were . . .

She didn't get the chance to see anything other than a faint outline of two figures before the air around her flickered in the same way it had before. Her eyes widened and she dropped to her stomach just as another layer of the purple material blinked into existence just where her head had been. She spent a second idly wondering what would have happened if she hadn't moved.

When she looked back at the figures at each corner she saw that they were in the gap between the two cubes just as she was. Outside the new layer several teams of ninja were hurling kunai and blasting the cube with all manner of destructive jutsu; most of it aimed at the four ninja at each corner.

'_Ah, the extra layer was for protection,'_ she realised. Still on her stomach, she turned her head so she was gazing directly into the cube and nearly suffered from a heart attack.

Inside the cube was the Sandaime . . . and _him._They seemed to be talking, but she didn't pay as much attention to that. She was locked in position, a fiery anger burning its way through her system as she stared at that accursed, thrice damned man. Her limbs began to shake with refrained fury and a bloody crimson crept in at the edges of her vision. She was going to _kill him._

Unfortunately the only way to kill the man was to either get inside the cube – which would be incredibly improbable as being able to get through a barrier would pretty much destroy the whole point of it being a _barrier _– or bring the cube down and then get him. Sei held no illusions of being strong enough to take down the man herself but if the ANBU were able to come in contact they would make quick work of it. And with the Sandaime in the fight it would be over rather quickly.

Making a snap decision, and relying on the fact that no one had noticed her existence between the layers yet, she pulled out her storage scroll and removed her backpack. In the cramped space she could only manage to kneel with her back uncomfortably hunched, but it was enough. She took out four kunai from the pouch at her right thigh, wincing when she saw that one of them had managed to re-orientate itself so the point was facing the opening, cutting into her skin slightly. Making a mental checklist, she vowed to start using as many storage seals as possible.

For once in her life she thanked the numerous lessons on the pathways a kunai will take when velocity, direction, and outside influences are factored into the equation she'd had drilled into her head at the Academy. For the first time since becoming an actual ninja they were proving themselves to be useful.

The calculations came easily to her, something she was grateful for. Digging around in her bag, she retrieved four explosive notes and wrapped them around the handles of the kunai. Before taking action, the girl positioned herself directly above _him,_and breathed deeply; in and out.

Without giving herself time to think, she sent a spike of chakra into each kunai and sent one flying at each corner. The kunai ricocheted off the corners, exactly where she had wanted them to, and shot towards the ground, the tags burning quickly.

A lopsided grin twisted Sei's lips when the sounds of muffled curses came from the corners, only to be cut short by loud bangs. She didn't spare a moment to look at the fruits of her labour but the disappearance of the cube was more than enough. Without a sound, the red head was falling through the air to land on top of her most hated enemy. It would have been nice to assume he didn't sense her coming because of her chakra supressing skills but she suspected it was more of a case of mistaken identity. After all, why would anyone search for their own chakra signal?

The loud crunch her knee made with his nose was very satisfying, she had to admit. Feeling the blood that spurted from his nose when it broke was even more so. Being grabbed around the waist and then straddled with a kunai to her throat . . . not so much.

"_You,_" he hissed with that sibilant voice of his. It washed over her body, sending chills racing up her spine as her chakra leapt at the sound. She suppressed the feeling though and snarled.

"Yes, me. And I'm back to destroy you for what you did," she growled back with anger coating every syllable. He would not get away with what he had done to her.

He glared at her, his yellow eyes burning into her blue, and pressed the kunai harder into her skin. She barely flinched, instead wrapping her hand around his wrist. It was cold. She didn't know how long the stare-off lasted but it came to an end without warning.

A giant pole that looked like an enlarged magician's wand – she had seen the travelling circus come to town a couple of times but because Konoha is a shinobi village they never came back – smashed into him, throwing him off her with the force of an avalanche. Sei blinked and sat up, looking over to the right where he had fallen. He was slowly getting to his feet, looking quite ticked off with being hit so hard, the blood drying on his face from his nose being broken somehow making him look even angrier.

The one who had hit him was the Sandaime, who was standing tall in his battle gear. The old Hokage glanced down at Sei and frowned in confusion.

"Sei?" he asked. Sei smiled slightly and gave a small wave, with her right hand; her left was still out of commission.

"Hey, old man. Long time no see," she hedged. The Sandaime stared at her for a moment before shaking his head.

"I will talk to you about this later," he said. "For the moment though it looks like this fight is over." Indeed, for dozens of ranks of shinobi had surrounded the rooftop, powerful ones such as Kakashi and Gai holding onto Kabuto and the other imposter ANBU. Many more created a circle around Orochimaru; a stupid but courageous move.

Acting on a suspicion that had formed ever since the altercation back in the house on the outskirts – and hadn't _that _been a fun – Sei stood up and stepped forwards.

"Let me talk to him," she said. Sarutobi frowned and opened his mouth but she beat him to it.

"Don't worry; he won't hurt me here. I am too valuable to him to be damaged without a proper procedure." Her lips twisted into a wry smile that left the Sandaime staring at her in shock. Never before had he heard his young surrogate granddaughter look so bitter. Naruto probably would have slapped her out of it.

Sei walked through the throngs of shinobi, weaving and ducking between weapons. When they realised that someone was coming through most of them parted for her. Orochimaru waited in the middle of the circle, staring out impassively at the rows of fighters he could destroy in an instant.

Sei came to a stop a few metres in front of him, not willing to get any closer. Now that she had the time and wasn't busy attacking him or trying to get out of that stupid chair she had been attached to for a month and he wasn't hiding in the shadows like a stalker, she could fully examine his transformation.

He had explained it to her while she had been captured, in a way that told her what she wanted to know but said nothing of whether he had gained any weaknesses from their duel change.

Both had either aged or de-aged to twenty-one years old, the peak age in chakra and physical efficiency. When Orochimaru had implanted the curse seal on her tongue it had reacted to her body in a different way to how it would have if it was on an outer layer of skin. Because of its nearness to the brain because it was placed on a internal body part, the curse seal let Orochimaru's chakra mess with Sei's system a lot more than if it was just a regular curse seal, morphing her body to be able to handle and use the exact same chakra as Orochimaru. Her signature was literally a clone of his now. But, for some reason that Orochimaru wasn't sure of, he had been morphed as well, gaining back the body he'd had at twenty-one. And Sei had to admit, though extremely pale and slightly creepy, it was an attractive one. She'd always had a thing for guys with long hair.

"What are you going to do?" she asked bluntly. "Kill all of us, escape and lose a potential threat to your safety?" She was referring to herself when she said that. "Or stay and manage to get out after a possibly lethal interrogation session, somehow killing or kidnapping me in the process?" He grinned at her, that confusing half-frown, half-smirk that she could never quite figure out.

"I won't need to take you with me. You'll come to me yourself," he stated. The shinobi around her turned to scrutinize her. Their eyes roving over her body as though looking for a possible sign of betrayal made her uncomfortable.

"Hah, you wish. The time I willing go to you will be the time when Kakashi is early to something."

"Maa, Sei. You're too cruel," a lazy voice piped up. Both of them glanced over and saw Kakashi staring at them from the opposite side of the circle, his book nowhere in sight. Sei cringed inwardly at the show of seriousness.

"You know I love you, sensei," she said, trying to keep the atmosphere light. She could feel the tension rising as the shinobi waited for Orochimaru or someone else to make a move. It was almost suffocating how thick the anticipation was. "But when have you ever not been distracted by the Road of Life?"

"When my cute little student has suddenly aged by nine years and is talking to one of the most infamous missing-nins of Konoha." Ouch. Even with the eye smile he was giving her she could _taste _his suppressed rage towards the evil Sannin. Oh dear, Orochimaru's weird snake abilities were being transferred to her; what type of person could taste anger? Was she going to start licking the air, proclaiming she could taste people's fear?

"Well, it's not like I chose for this to happen, Kaka-sensei." She stressed his nickname slightly, trying to remind him of the bond they shared. By the way his eye narrowed she knew he could tell what she was doing. She decided to turn the attention on the missing-nin between them. "He was the one who kidnapped me."

Kakashi's eye stayed on her for a moment longer, before snapping back to Orochimaru, who had been watching the interaction with interest. Sei had no idea what he had managed to find out during her time unconscious, dealing with the curse seal remodelling her body, so her relationship with Kakashi could have been a surprise to him. Somehow she doubted it, though.

The snake smiled and moved towards her, incidentally away from the irate Konoha shinobi. Sei reacted by pulling out a kunai, along with the dozen other nin around her. When his grin simply widened she stuck her tongue out, exposing the curse seal. It was a stupid move but she had to remind him that he couldn't hurt her and that he _needed _her. Fortunately he blocked Kakashi's view of her otherwise that would have opened a whole other can of worms. As it was she saw the Hokage's eyes widen in shock when he caught sight of it just as he got to the rim of the circle.

Orochimaru stopped moving and instead opened his mouth.

"The suit looks good on you," he said conversationally. "Too bad that soon looking good won't matter to you very much."

Sei bared her teeth and took a step forwards so that there was only half a metre between them.

"I could say the same to you. By this evening you won't even be recognisable anymore. You may need me but there is nothing I need from you," she threatened through a clenched jaw. Orochimaru actually had the gall to laugh at that and he drew up so close to her that they were almost touching. Sei had to gesture for no one to move when all the shinobi tensed to attack.

He cocked his head, eyes raking over her face, drinking it in. She gave him a glare that held so much intensity it would have sent Naruto, the usually impervious idiot he was, running as far away from her as possible. It made no difference.

"You need the answers I can give you more than you could possibly imagine," he hissed.

And with that he leapt away from her and disappeared. Kakashi nearly all the other shinobi followed, leaving only a few to hold onto Kabuto, the Sound Four and the imposter ANBU.

The Hokage walked up to her and joined her in staring at the forest; though glaring would be more appropriate in the first place. It was a while before he spoke, and what he said was completely unexpected.

"Naruto isn't happy that you gave your first kiss to a creepy snake pervert," he said as though it was the most normal thing in the world.

Sei couldn't help it. She laughed. She laughed so hard that her side began to hurt and she almost fell to her knees. The Sandaime watched her amusedly, chuckling a few times himself. Eventually, she managed to get a control of herself, her body heaving as she sucked in breath after breath. Wiping her eyes, she straightened and turned to face the Hokage directly.

"I think you will need to hear the whole story."

* * *

TOWRTA: Questions, comments, concerns? Even a simple 'Sweet' is appreciated. Or, better yet, anything you want to see happen in the future of this story.

Till next time, and tell me if I should continue.

(Shameless promoting: Psst. Check out my other story, Zahra Lahgazi if you don't want to wait for me to write more of this.)


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